Genetic variability, character association and multivariate analysis in garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) for quality and biochemical traits

Abstract

Seventeen garden pea genotypes were examined to check the magnitude of genetic variability, character association, principal component analysis and diversity. From the analysis, variation among the genotypes for all the characters was found to be highly significant. The estimates of PCV were found to be greater than the GCV for all the characters, demonstrating that the effect of environment is also a factor in the apparent variation in addition to genotypes. The highest GCV as well as PCV values have been observed in the case of total phenols followed by green pod yield/plant, total sugars, number of first fruiting nodes and shelling percentage. All the characters showed a high magnitude of heritability. Further, substantial heritability coupled with a high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed for total phenols, i.e., 94.90 and 80.57%, respectively. Based on genotypic and phenotypic correlation and path coefficient, number of pods/plants, shelling percentage, number of first fruiting node and 100-green seed weight are the most promising selection indices for yield improvement. The six PCs accounted for 96.42% (54.60, 21.92, 6.97, 6.00, 3.73 and 3.20) of the variation. PC-I was a combination of days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of nodes per plant, number of first fruiting nodes, days to first picking, number of pods per plant, pod width, 100 gm seed weight and TSS. Therefore, for the successful breeding program to improve the yield of garden pea germplasm, these characteristics must be used in a direct selection of genotypes.